Bill and the gang down in Charlotte have opened up registration for their spring Code Camp on Sat May 17th. A number of people from the Raleigh area are thinking of carpooling down, and a number of us are speaking at the event. I will be presenting a session on Silverlight 2 control customization.

Code Camps are a great way to get training on a variety of topics, as well as to meet peers in the community and benefit from the energy and excitement that goes hand in hand with these events.

To attend this event you must pre-register: http://www.developersguild.org/Default.aspx?tabid=240 

I've been talking with a number of people about starting a Silverlight focused group here in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area. If you're interested, se if you can come out to the presentation I'm giving for the Triangle .Net User Group Web Applications SIG on Wednesday and we can maybe chat afterwards as well about setting another meeting up later in April. I'm thinking maybe April 22nd, 24th, or 29th?

On the topic of SIlverlight meetings.... I think there are a few of us that may soon need a local meeting more like this....

Silverlight Rehab - You're not alone

Stay out of the dark and go into the light! ;-)

If you're interested in some FREE Silverlight 2 training, on Wednesday evening (April 2, 2008 6:00 pm) I will be giving a presentation on Silverlight 2 Controls for the Triangle .Net User Group's(TRINUG) Web Application SIG. The meeting is being held at Compuware in Durham, NC. I'll be covering the controls currently included in Silverlight 2, as well as creating User Controls and Custom Controls, and also styling and skinning existing controls.

One of the fun parts of Mix08 was seeing the Code Trip bus set sail on it's voyage around the western US. It's a bunch of Microsoft DE's and prominent members of the developer community that will be holding a series of events as they travel from city to city. I look forward to seeing the bus again at it's final destination at the MVP summit in Seattle in April. 

The Code Trip site has a listing of the events taking place, real time bus GPS tracking, and a travel log. Anybody recognize the two in the preview image?

Happy trails Code Trip Team!!!

Wednesday, March 12, Chris Eargle will be presenting on Continuous Integration using MSBuild and CruiseControl at the March Meeting of TriNUG. Chris has an excellent grasp on this topic, and this presentation, while easily approachable for those new to CI, has plenty of technical depth for those more familiar with the topic. Chris is a great speaker, and this event will leave you well-versed and capable in setting up your own CI solution.

[Direct scrape from Dug's blog but I wanted to make sure we got the word out!]

Was this the Microsoft Research showing at TED that had Scoble in tears?

See the video HERE of Photosynth and related technologies that they're working on. Very cool.

Are you thinking about going to Tech Ed in Orlando this June? One of the best parts of the event are the Birds-of-a-Feather sessions put on by the INETA and Culminis communities. They're a lot of fun, and a great chance to chat face to face with peers in the community. Go ahead an submit a topic if you have some ideas, and plan to attend if you're in the neighborhood!

The official info....

Submit your ideas as topics for Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) discussions and volunteer to be a moderator!

According to some of last year's attendees, BOFs were one of the 3 best things about Tech Ed 2007. While it may seem far in the future, it's time to start thinking about topics for the Birds of a Feather sessions at Tech Ed Developers in June.

With the conference split into two consecutive Tech Ed events for the first time this year, INETA is organizing the Birds-of-a-Feather sessions at Tech Ed 2008 Developers in Orlando June 3-6, 2008 while our sister organization, Culminis, is organizing the BOF sessions at Tech Ed IT Professionals, June 10-13.

If you're not familiar with the concept, a Birds-of-a-Feather session is an open discussion lead by a moderator who is not a Microsoft employee. The sessions are not presentations, there are no projectors. Unlike the Keynotes and Breakout sessions which are mostly one to many communication, Birds-of-a-Feather sessions are many to many communication and don't necessarily focus on Microsoft products or technology.  They are about people talking with people - connecting, sharing, networking, and creating community. It's that simple, and that's what we do best.

Over the past several years Birds of a Feather sessions have become fully integrated into the Tech Ed agenda.  This means you'll see them in the online scheduling tool and they'll be listed in the mini-guide.  There will be daytime sessions along with the other conference technical tracks, as well as an All-BOF Night on Wednesday, June 3rd from 6:30 to 9:00 PM.

As a result of this integration, BOF Submissions and Voting close on March 19th!

The BOFs are all about community participation, and community is a critical part of their success. INETA and Culminis solicit session proposals - you submit topics you would like to have discussed - your peers vote on they you want to see as BOF sessions - and then the organizers select, schedule, publicize and organize the Birds-of-a-Feather sessions.  If your BOF topic submission is selected, you are then asked to moderate the session.  You are welcome to submit more than one topic!!  Anyone attending a BOF can contribute to the discussion.

Do your part to continue the community tradition and get involved now!  Here's how you can participate:

1. Get the word out.  Blog about the Call for Topics, or post the Call in forums you participate in.  Let folks know about the voting and about your favorite topics.

2. Propose a Topic. If you're going to be at Tech Ed - if there's a topic you'd like to discuss with your peers and you'd be willing to moderate that discussion- click through and submit the topic.

3. Vote.  Check the Tech Ed Developers BOF Voting Page and as you see topics appear that interest you, vote for them!

4. Stay Tuned. As BOF session ideas come in, they will be added to the Tech Ed Developers BOF Voting Page for you to select. When the Tech Ed Schedule Builder goes live in April, mark your calendars and plan to attend and join in great discussions. We'll also have more to say about how you can volunteer to be a Host at one or more BOF sessions in the next INETA newsletter.

For Instructions check out: http://www.ineta.org/newsletters/misc/2008-02/bof_instructions.pdf

Are you thinking about going to Tech Ed in Orlando this June? One of the best parts of the event are the Birds-of-a-Feather put on by the INETA and Culminis communities. They're a lot of fun, and a great chance to chat face to face with peers in the community. Go ahead an submit a topic if you have some ideas, and plan to attend if you're in the neighborhood!

The official info....

Submit your ideas as topics for Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) discussions and volunteer to be a moderator!

According to some of last year's attendees, BOFs were one of the 3 best things about Tech Ed 2007. While it may seem far in the future, it's time to start thinking about topics for the Birds of a Feather sessions at Tech Ed Developers in June.

With the conference split into two consecutive Tech Ed events for the first time this year, INETA is organizing the Birds-of-a-Feather sessions at Tech Ed 2008 Developers in Orlando June 3-6, 2008 while our sister organization, Culminis, is organizing the BOF sessions at Tech Ed IT Professionals, June 10-13.

If you're not familiar with the concept, a Birds-of-a-Feather session is an open discussion lead by a moderator who is not a Microsoft employee. The sessions are not presentations, there are no projectors. Unlike the Keynotes and Breakout sessions which are mostly one to many communication, Birds-of-a-Feather sessions are many to many communication and don't necessarily focus on Microsoft products or technology.  They are about people talking with people - connecting, sharing, networking, and creating community. It's that simple, and that's what we do best.

Over the past several years Birds of a Feather sessions have become fully integrated into the Tech Ed agenda.  This means you'll see them in the online scheduling tool and they'll be listed in the mini-guide.  There will be daytime sessions along with the other conference technical tracks, as well as an All-BOF Night on Wednesday, June 3rd from 6:30 to 9:00 PM.

As a result of this integration, BOF Submissions and Voting close on March 19th!

The BOFs are all about community participation, and community is a critical part of their success. INETA and Culminis solicit session proposals - you submit topics you would like to have discussed - your peers vote on they you want to see as BOF sessions - and then the organizers select, schedule, publicize and organize the Birds-of-a-Feather sessions.  If your BOF topic submission is selected, you are then asked to moderate the session.  You are welcome to submit more than one topic!!  Anyone attending a BOF can contribute to the discussion.

Do your part to continue the community tradition and get involved now!  Here's how you can participate:

1. Get the word out.  Blog about the Call for Topics, or post the Call in forums you participate in.  Let folks know about the voting and about your favorite topics.

2. Propose a Topic. If you're going to be at Tech Ed - if there's a topic you'd like to discuss with your peers and you'd be willing to moderate that discussion- click through and submit the topic.

3. Vote.  Check the Tech Ed Developers BOF Voting Page and as you see topics appear that interest you, vote for them!

4. Stay Tuned. As BOF session ideas come in, they will be added to the Tech Ed Developers BOF Voting Page for you to select. When the Tech Ed Schedule Builder goes live in April, mark your calendars and plan to attend and join in great discussions. We'll also have more to say about how you can volunteer to be a Host at one or more BOF sessions in the next INETA newsletter.

For Instructions check out: http://www.ineta.org/newsletters/misc/2008-02/bof_instructions.pdf

It's going to be an interesting week ahead, with a number of events in the developer world. On Wednesday Feb 27th, Microsoft will begin the "Global Wave" of launch events around the world, starting with a large scale event in Los Angeles. At this event we will see Windows Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 officially launched.

One week later is the Microsoft MIX08 conference where it is anticipated that Microsoft will be showing Silverlight 2 and IE8 for the first time, as well as well as updates to Visual Studio and futures such as the MVC Framework.  (Note that it's apparently "Silverlight 2" now and not Silverlight 2.0. ScottGu has given a few preview details on his blog) I get the feeling that there are a lot of other exciting announcements in the pipe that are being held back and will be made between or during these events. (There is also the TED conference that could preview some new things from Microsoft Research)

Not to be left out of the picture, It also sounds like Adobe will be fighting for attention next week as well as they are expected to release Flex 3 and AIR. We'll save the Flash vs Silverlight debate for another day, but the important fact is that competition in this space is really heating up.

There has been a lot of debate about the future of RIA (Rich Internet Applications or Rich Interactive Applications, or as I prefer to think of it, a way to get Rich on the Internet Again), and what the impact really will be. There are some camps that feel that HTML + JavaScript will be as far as mainstream development goes within the browsers. Personally while I do not think that in the near future every html based site will cease to exist and be replaced by a Silverlight or Flash applications, I do think that these technologies represent some major opportunities for existing sites to add some dramatic enhancements without completely replacing everything that is. My hope is not that we see more of the same, but get to experience some real innovations in user interfaces and the way that information is presented to us.

While some developers/admin users have claimed that they are not willing to install the runtimes for these environments, the reality is that most end users want more interactivity and will gladly click Next, Yes, Yes, Next at the prospect of doing something cool. If the download is quick, and relatively easy they will install it.Smart developers will use ways of gradually introducing enhanced features into their sites.

I'd like to take this opportunity to say congratulations to two very deserving friends of mine that were recently awarded Regional Director status by Microsoft, Daniel Egan and Jim Duffy. Without going into all the details, (You can learn more here) but let's just say it's a pretty big deal and these guys should be feeling pretty good about their accomplishments. Good job guys! You both deserve it!

Jim received a big round of applause at the Raleigh Code Camp when our DE Brian Hitney made the big announcement. Below is Daniel after receiving the email following an INETA user group presentation he gave in Florida.

Registration for Code Camp RDU on Feb 16, 2008 is almost full. If you're planning to attend this free day of .Net developer training, make sure you register over on the www.trinug.org website.

This year's event has a speaker list including Richard Campbell, Carl Franklin, Mark Dunn, Ken Spencer, Don Demsak, Miguel Castro, Steve Avery, Scott Forsyth, Jim Wooley and many more.

Topics include LINQ, SharePoint, MVC, SIlverlight, ASP.NET AJAX and more.

The last spaces will likely fill up fast so get registered if you're not already. This is an event you will not want to miss!

Jeffery Palermo has announced an open-source project to create solution that can serve as a user group CodeCamp web site. The even cooler part is that it is being built on top ASP.NET MVC Framework that was recently released.

This is a great way to get involved in doing something for the community, while sharpening your skills at the same time. Count me in!

Congratulations to everybody that received a Microsoft MVP award today. A special shout out to D'Arcy Lussier and Chris Love on their well deserved awards! Great job guys!

One of the biggest complaints of heard the the past from developers when new versions of Visual Studio comes out is that the can not take advantage of the new IDE because their company/project is still using the previous version of the .NET Framework.

A major step that was taken in Visual Studio was to separate the IDE from the framework. This means you can use the goodness of VS2008 on existing 2.0 projects. Brad Abrams links to the ASP.NET Ajax 2.0 templates that you can install in VS2008 or create new web projects targeting 2.0.

Don't let framework adoption rates prevent you from using the great new features in VS2008!

Tonight Microsoft took the covers off of the new ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions Preview and the ASP.NET MVC Toolkit

While I'm extremely excited by the new ASP.NET MVC (Model View Controller) I could not overlook the Silverlight Controls for ASP.NET that make it easy to integrate the rich behavior of Silverlight into a web application. It provides an updated MediaPlayer Server Control  and Silverlight Server control.

The MediaPlayer Server Control allows you to integrate media sources into your web project without any knowledge of XAML or Javascript using pre-built skins, or by referencing custom XAML skins.

          <
          asp:MediaPlayer
          runat
          ="server"
          AutoPlay
          ="true|false"
          ScaleMode
          ="None|Zoom|Stretch"
          EnableCaptions
          ="true|false"
          Height
          ="height"
          MediaSkin
          ="skinName"
          MediaSource
          ="URL"
          Muted
          ="true|false"
          PlaceholderImageSource
          ="URL"
          PluginBackColor
          ="color"
          Volume
          ="volume"
          Width
          ="width"
          OnClientChapterStarted
          ="functionName"
          OnClientCurrentStateChanged
          ="functionName"
          OnClientMarkerReached
          ="functionName"
          OnClientMediaEnded
          ="functionName"
          OnClientMediaFailed
          ="functionName"
          OnClientMediaOpened
          ="functionName"
          OnClientVolumeChanged
          ="functionName" <Chapters><asp:MediaChapterPosition="index"Title="title"ThumbnailImageSource="URL"/></Chapters></asp:media>

The Silverllight Server Control allows you to reference your own XAML. The control also references client JavaScript files associated with the XAML.

          <
          asp:Silverlight
          runat
          ="server"
          ClientType
          ="ClientType"
          EnableHtmlAccess
          ="true|false"
          EnableFrameRateCounter
          ="true|false"
          EnableRedrawRegios
          ="true|false"
          InitParamsters
          ="parameters"
          InstallationMode
          ="None|Inline|Linked"
          MaxFrameRate
          ="rate"
          PluginBackColor
          ="color"
          Source
          ="XamlSource"
          Version
          ="version"
          Windowless
          ="true|false"
          ScaleMode
          ="None|Zoom|Stretch"
          OnClientPluginError
          ="functionName"
          OnClientPluginResized
          ="functionName"
          OnClientPluginLoaded
          ="functionName"
          OnClientPluginFullScreenChanged
          ="functionName" </asp:Silverlight>

More on this later... now onto the MVC...

Karl sent me a note a little while ago and I've been meaning to blog about this, but in the mean time I think Karl has gone without sleep since then and along with Josh Smith has already rolled out Mole version 2! You can get it HERE

Mole 2 is

"a high performance, full featured, multifunction visualizer that allows in-depth inspection of the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) visual and logical trees. For each element in the visual or logical tree the developer can view all properties, visual image, run-time XAML or IEnumerable collection data."

If you work with WPF this, Mole is a thing of beauty! ( I wonder it would take to do this for Silverlight? )

Great work guys! For more info please see http://karlshifflett.wordpress.com/mole-visual-studio-visualizer-for-wpf/

If you're planning on participating in the TRINUG VS2008 InstallFest later this month, please be certain to have completely UN-installed any VS2008/.Net 3.5 prerelease software that you may have installed on your computer. Scott Guthrie has a blog post with a good list and order to go through to uninstall.

Microsoft DE (And all around nice guy) Joe Healy also has a list, which includes a few notes on what do do if things don't go smoothly.

I personally had no issues following Scott's list and am now happily running VS2008 and .Net 3.5.

** Just a note that we've pretty much reached our capacity for the TRINUG event. We are using a waiting list so please feel free to sign up and we'll let you know if a spot opens up. (If you are not going to be able to attend please let us know as well. You must be present to participate in the offer)

In a very insightful post, Scott Guthrie detail the current .Net web roadmap. Of particular interest is the Silverlight related text. First of all, THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU for officially re-branding taking Silverlight 1.1 to Silverlight 2.0. As somebody that's given numerous talks, the confusion that existed between 1.0 and 1.1 in conjunction with all of the other version  numbers floating around became a little much. Silverlight 2.0 makes things a lot easier to explain.

In Scott's post, he details many specific new features that we can look forward to, hopefully in another preview release later this year before the beta next year. His highlights include:

• WPF UI Framework: The current Silverlight Alpha release only includes basic controls support and a managed API for UI drawing.  The next public Silverlight preview will add support for the higher level features of the WPF UI framework.  These include: the extensible control framework model, layout manager support, two-way data-binding support, and control template and skinning support.  The WPF UI Framework features in Silverlight will be a compatible subset of the WPF UI Framework features in last week's .NET Framework 3.5 release.

• Rich Controls: Silverlight will deliver a rich set of controls that make building Rich Internet Applications much easier.  The next Silverlight preview release will add support for core form controls (textbox, checkbox, radiobutton, etc), built-in layout management controls (StackPanel, Grid, etc), common functionality controls (TabControl, Slider, ScrollViewer, ProgressBar, etc) and data manipulation controls (DataGrid, etc).

• Rich Networking Support: Silverlight will deliver rich networking support.  The next Silverlight preview release will add support for REST, POX, RSS, and WS* communication.  It will also add support for cross domain network access (so that Silverlight clients can access resources and data from any trusted source on the web).

• Rich Base Class Library Support: Silverlight will include a rich .NET base class library of functionality (collections, IO, generics, threading, globalization, XML, local storage, etc).  The next Silverlight preview release will also add built-in support for LINQ to XML and richer HTML DOM API integration.

The most important part in my opinion is the official introduction of controls, layout, and binding support. A lot of people having been doing some very creative work on these to show the potential, but we've all been anxiously awaiting the official story. When you look at the sample sites of control vendors like Telerik, Component One, Infragistics, etc you can see the power that exists. Having the official base to build these on will just expand this potential.

Reading that "compatible subset of the WPF UI Framework" is music to my ears! This will make it extremely easy for organizations working with WPF/XAML today to instantly be productive with Silverlight. For people considering the technology, this gives you even more return potential for the learning and training investment required.

Having a Go-Live license in Q1 is also great news! It's been difficult to see the power, but not really be able to put it to use yet,

Great job to everybody that's been working on this, I can't wait to get my hands dirty on some new bits. (please be soon!)

The date has been selected for the CodeCampRDU 2008

Mark your calendars for Raleigh Code Camp on Feb 9, 2008. We'll be updating the website soon and issuing an official call for speakers.

The Triangle .NET User Group is going to be hosting an exciting meeting in December to celebrate the release of Visual Studio 2008. As part of our launch party, attendees will be given an opportunity to install the RTM version Visual Studio 2008 Professional.

EVERYONE THAT REGISTERS FOR AND ATTENDS THE EVENT IN PERSON WILL RECEIVE A FREE LICENSE KEY FOR VISUAL STUDIO 2008 PROFESSIONAL! 

Please note a couple of key things, you must first REGISTER to attend this event by logging into www.trinug.org and registering for this event. Space is limited, so don't delay. We're working on a couple of options to secure a larger venue for the event, but will likely start a waiting list shortly. At the event, the Trial Version will be provided for install. The license key that wil be sent within 90 days from Microsoft will unlock this version without need for a reinstall.

At the event, during the install party we will be holding a number of short 30 minute presentations on a variety of VS2008/.Net 3.5 topics. If you're interested in presenting with us, please let me know.

As part of the evening, we will also be asking that all in attendance bring a donation for the local food bank. We will be accepting food and cash donations at the event.

For more information, please visit www.trinug.org

I've ben closely watching the Scott and Scott show off the new ASP.NET MVC Framework. If you haven't been following along, here's some reading to keep you busy until we see a CTP release sometime soon. (Hopefully real soon!)

ASP.NET MVC Framework (Part 1)
The REST-Like Aspect Of ASP.NET MVC
An Architectural View of the ASP.NET MVC Framework
ASP.Net MVC Framework - Handling Exception by using an Attribute
In depth: The ASP.NET MVC Pipeline
RSS Feed with the new ASP.NET MVC Framework
DevConnections - The ASP.NET MVC Framework
ASP.Net MVC Framework - List and Save data

As somebody that's been following what been going on with Ruby frameworks like RAILS, as well as REST I'm very interested in seeing how this applies to the ASP.NET world. I'm still forming opinions, but I find the potential very exciting.